Area gangs' latest enterprise: Sexual slavery

The descriptions of the depravity are sickening. Girls 14 to 18 from throughout the West lured or kidnapped into a life of prostitution, their every move controlled by pimps who siphon their entire earnings. They are held in place by a mix of fear, beatings, sexual and psychological abuse, and even gang tattoos similar to cattle brands, county supervisors were told this week.

The statistics are sickening, too. Thirty at-risk girls picked up the evening Supervisor Dianne Jacob did a ride-along, sheriff task force figures identifying 164 pimps the past three years (44 percent of them gang members) and FBI data ranking San Diego as the nation’s eighth-worst city for such activity.

The trend points in an ominous direction: Gangs are organizing and entrapping girls into sexual slavery. Forget black-market pills or gunrunning – this is more lucrative and less risky.

Forget, too, the blather about prostitution being a victimless crime. The sheriff’s task force has come across 372 victims in three years, girls too abused and scared to speak. Girls who decline rescue unless they can be persuaded social services are available to help them.

U-T writers Kristina Davis and Steve Schmidt reported on the presentation earlier this week and 45 minutes of video is available at sdcounty.ca.gov.

Supervisors voted for a unified, regional approach. Expanding the existing sheriff’s task force would be an easy way to accomplish that. They also asked staff for specific points to include in their 2011 legislative request, hoping to give police and prosecutors improved gang surveillance capabilities and tougher sentences.

Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Means says that if a recognized street gang is involved in any of 33 types of criminal activity, law enforcement has access to wiretaps, other techniques and extended sentences. Pimping, pandering and human trafficking are not on that list. They should be.

Emerging gangs are forming to engage solely in the business of sexual slavery. A few months ago, the organizers may have been warring members of San Diego’s most notorious street gangs. Now, they are working together. And because of the weaknesses in law, those who would kidnap, rape, beat and brand young girls into a life of degradation, abuse and despair hold the advantage.

The girls are recruited or kidnapped from communities poor or affluent. They are troubled, suffer from low self-esteem and are vulnerable. Once ensnared in sexual slavery, the girls are unlikely to escape. Vicious pimps will see to that. So will gang tattoos in two-inch lettering.

The public can help. Tell law enforcement about minors involved in prostitution. Tell a legislator that sexual slavery is unacceptable in a civilized society.